The present invention relates to an expandable container, in particular as a work room.
An expandable container is disclosed, for example, in the German Patent Document DE-G 92 16 314.9. It comprises a basic container with hinged side walls and one or more expansion element(s), which can be moved out of the basic container. An expansion element comprises two side walls and a front wall. In the state in which the expansion element is moved out, two folded-out side walls of the basic container form the roof wall and bottom wall of an expansion element. The drawback with this design is the long seal that is necessary along the roof and bottom wall for sealing the container. This is a problem especially with the demand for ABC tightness.
A generic container is known from the European Patent Document EP 0 682 156 B1. It comprises a basic container as well as one or more expansion element(s), whose purpose is to expand the interior and which can be moved out of the basic container. The expansion elements exhibit the shape of a box and, with the exception of the open side in the direction of the basic container, are closed on all sides. There is also a lift unit, whose purpose is to achieve a flat bottom inside the entire container and with which the expansion elements can be lowered in such a manner that, after lowering, the bottom walls of the basic container and the expansion element are at the same height.
In the design with two expansion elements the dimensions of the two expansion elements have to be chosen in such a manner that the one expansion element can be slid into the other expansion element. The result is that the standing height is relatively short (approximately 190 cm), especially in the smaller of the two expansion elements.
Another drawback of this container is the circumstance that the area that is usually contaminated the most by the environmental influences, namely the roof wall of an expansion element, gets into the interior of the basic container when the expansion elements are retracted again. This factor is a problem especially when the container is used for medical purposes, for example, as an operating room.
Therefore, the object of the invention is to improve an expandable container of this class in such a manner that with the improved standing height the described problems arising from the contamination of its exterior surfaces are avoided.
The container of the present invention exhibits in particular the following advantages: improved standing height; simple sealing, short sealing lengths; and simplified decontamination.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings